N.y. Mayor Says Welfare Reform Was Successful

December 29, 1999|The New York Times

NEW YORK — Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced on Tuesday that he had fulfilled the pledge he made 18 months ago to end welfare as New York City knows it by shifting thousands of recipients into work, job training or treatment, and taking away benefits from the rest.

Giuliani said that all able-bodied welfare recipients without infant children are now either in jobs or taking some steps to get them. "Today marks the milestone of replacing the culture of dependency in New York City with the culture of work and employment," he said.

But City Council members immediately challenged the way the mayor was adding up the numbers, pointing out that fewer than a quarter of the people he classified as able to work were actually documented as working. City Hall counted as successes recipients who had merely been ordered to seek evaluation for work or training programs. Charts provided by city officials failed to provide enough information to clearly show how much of the shift reflects real changes for welfare recipients and how much is a product of reclassifying them.

City Councilman Stephen DiBrienza said that City Hall had stretched definitions so much that "for thousands upon thousands" of people, "it simply means they got a letter." The councilman added: "They've created this tough piece in search of a headline so the mayor can say he fulfilled his promise, and I think it's complete hype."

By all accounts, Giuliani never intended to push everyone off public assistance. The mayor did want to go beyond the federal government's workfare requirements by moving every willing and able recipient into jobs or training.